On the day U.S. senators were supposed to start voting on authorizing force against Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry will instead be on his way to Geneva to talk peace with his Russian counterpart to discuss a so-called third option – disarming Syria of its stockpile of chemical weapons.FULL POST

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has repeatedly called for a stronger stance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Graham listened to President Barack Obama's address to the nation Tuesday night, and said Obama made a compelling, impassioned moral case for U.S. intervention in Syria.

"It's impossible for him not to react if diplomacy fails – not to act," said Graham. "He's painted himself into a corner. The leader of the free world can't say all these things, and at the end of the day do nothing."

Just a few weeks ago, Graham stood in the White House driveway and criticized the president, calling on him to talk about Syria in broader terms.

"I'll continue to trash him in that regard," said Graham.

Graham at the time was trying to extract leverage from the escalating situation, and get Obama to do more in Syria, to arm the rebels.

"The president is in a bind. People don't want to get involved in the Middle East any more than they have to," said Graham.

But, Graham said, the country is losing the lessons of 9/11.

Graham went on to say that there is a lot to be learned from Iraq, but it cannot overshadow the lessons of 9/11, which he said "are pretty simple to me. Safe havens for al Qaeda are forming in Syria, they're beginning to form again in western Iraq."

For more of reaction to Obama's speech from Senator Lindsey Graham, click on the video above.

There have been mixed reactions to Apple's unveiling of the latest iterations of the company's smart phone Tuesday – the iPhone 5S and 5C. But TheStreet.com columnist Rocco Pendola, who has criticized the company in the past, jumped to Apple's defense.

"I'm happy with what they did today. Tim Cook said we will never produce a crappy device, and that said to me we're not going to produce some cheap device. They didn't do that. The 5C is not cheap. It is a premium price phone," said Pendola.FULL POST

President Barack Obama will address the nation Tuesday night. With the option in Syria changing so much in the last few days, Obama has a difficult task ahead.

He has to give some background to what has been happening, then he has to "make a moral case to the American people about why it's important to them," said former National Security Spokesman to the Obama administration Tommy Vietor.

Specifically, Obama has to convince Americans "why chemical weapons in Syria, why little kids being gassed in their sleep with chemical weapons is important, why that endangers U.S. troops, and why the credible threat of military force actually helps him reach a diplomatic solution to this problem," said Vietor.FULL POST

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